Ever since Volkswagen’s successful ad campaign during the Super Bowl last year, their sales have increased 26% (The Washington Post). Their commercial involving the cute kid dressed as Darth Vader (Link: The Force: Volkswagen Commercial) surged through the internet soon after, with over 48 million views on Youtube (which is 10 million higher than the well-known Old Spice commercial). Personally, I love Volkswagen’s commercials, my favourite being The Kids Need Space: Volkswagen, which I’ve actually never seen on television (oddly enough) since it’s originally in German. I find it intriguing how we can watch commercials over and over, knowing full well we’re doing just what the company wants us to do, and even go to the extent of looking for other commercials by the same company if we enjoy the first one we see. I think I’ve watched all of Volkswagen’s commercials since they’re easily accessible, and many others have too, considering most of their other videos are just shy from 1 million views. What I find even more intriguing is how many other commercials annoy us to death, causing us to change the channel due to the anticipation of it appearing on television. This is just what Dan Neufeld mentions in his post about how many commercials can become extremely unfavorable if they are bland and appear every time the commercials start between the same television shows. I actually tried looking for the Cheetah Power Surge commercial he was talking about on Youtube and couldn’t even find one of their real commercials, just a contest campaign they tried, where each video had only around 1000 views. Volkswagen’s marketing is much more successful than Cheetah Power Surge because the videos target the proper market in an innovative and creative way that, due to its emotional appeal, actually sticks in our minds. Unlike Cheetah Surge which has bland and repetitive videos. So far, my family has bought a Volkswagen in the last year, and another a few years before. I cannot say that it’s due to their amazing marketing campaigns, but there’s a high chance that it is. “The Wall Street Journal” mentions fears of the sales decreasing over the course of 2012 due to the “[significant slowing] of the global economy”, but Volkswagen is still confident with their standing, prepared for “Conservative planning, high flexibility in production and sales as well as…cost discipline.”
Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/volkswagens-tim-mahoney-answers-3-questions-about-marketing-products-and-the-super-bowl-ad/2012/01/11/gIQAj5xkqP_story.html
The Wall Street Journal:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vw-vehicle-sales-robust-but-12-outlook-muted-2011-12-06